bottom of the hour now. welcome back, everyone. i'm randi kaye. >> i'm victor blackwell. here are five stories we're watching this morning. number one, in benghazi, libya, hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrator stormed the headquarters of a radical islamist group linked to the embassy attacked that killed four americas, shouting "no to militias." and at least four were killed and more than 70 injured in

benghazi. mitt romney has released his latest federal tax return from 2011. he paid nearly $2 million taxes on $14 million, a 14.1% rate. >> and while you were sleeping, the senate approved a plan to fund the government for another six months. the government was set to run out of money by the end of the month. now all members of congress are off so can go home to campaign. >> and a disturbing story from here in suburban atlanta. paul and sheila comber kept their son mitch confined and malnourished for four years and then on his 18th birthday shipped him to los angeles with a list of homeless shelters. authorities found him there and mitch is now back in georgia in safe surroundings and his parents are in custody.

>> number five on a list of things never to do, this would be near the top. a man believed to be in his 20s jumped from the monorail at the bronx zoo and into a tiger pit. he's in critical condition after suffering puncture wounds but he's alive. that's the good news. staff used a fire extinguisher to keep the tiger at bay and the jumper then rolled under a hot wire to safety. wow. >> money can soon be on the way to the victims of the theaters victims in aurora, colorado. a special master has been appointed to distribute money to the families of those who lost their lives and the 58 wounded in that attack. feinberg comes to the project with specialized experience. he's also been hired by penn state who help claims by

victims. ken feinberg joins me this morning. >> good morning. >> why do you think specifically you've been called in to help manage these funds once again? >> well, i think the previous funds worked, they were successful, 9/11 and virginia tech, agent orange, bp. and i think that success sort of breeds a repeat performance in these rare situations where compensation is ready to be distributed to innocent victims. >> if you look at the numbers, i believe only $5,000 so far has been given to each of these families. how quickly are you hoping to get the money out to them? >> well, we hope in a matter of weeks. that's the key. i've learned in all of these programs going back to the 1980s with agent orange, get the money

out, get it out fast. all the words in the world are no substitute for getting the compensation distributed as soon as possible to eligible victims. >> i remember during the bp oil spill you held a series of community meetings. you tried to go out and talk to the families who were waiting for money. are you planning to have any contact with these families and help them understand the process what will the process being? will this be based on need or will they all get the same amount? >> well, that has to be determined. i think there's been a lot of progress. the governor in colorado has done a pretty wonderful job in trying to get to these victims and get their input and find out what these families seek in the way of a formula, how many money should be distributed, whether there should be any conditions. penn state is alltogether different. penn state isn't a community-wide compensation program. it's a situation where there are a number of innocent victims of

the sandusky problem, sexual abuse issue, and i'll be trying to help those individuals and their lawyers, along with my partner michael rosen, try to reach out and see if we can find a resolution of that litigation between them and penn state. >> back to aurora, $5 million is the fund. 58 wounded and 12 dead, will there need to be some money to help fill in the gap there or is it all there ready to go? >> i think it's there. now, there may be other programs quite apart from this $5 million fund that might be also assisting victims, but the real question in colorado will be how do you take a limited amount -- a relatively limited amount of money and distribute it as best you can to the dead and to the

physically injured. this will be not easy. but we do have virginia tech as a model where the families of the deceased all got the same amount and the physically injured were paid based on how long they were in the hospital. we may do something like that in colorado. >> what about the suspect in the case in colorado, james holmes. i'm not sure what his assets are if he even has any. could you go after him and his estate personally for compensation? >> that's tilting the wind mills. have i have nothing to do with that. the governor made it clear to me yesterday there is a discrete fund of about $5 million sitting, ready to be distributed to the victims of the shooting in the movie theater and that money hopefully we will get a program up, a protocol drafted, get that money out in a matter of weeks. that is the goal and the governor made it very clear to me that is the goal. >> yeah.

having been out there covering that story, a met a lot of those families. i'm sure they are certainly in need and appreciate your hard work. ken feinberg, thank you. >> thank you very much. >> victor? >> there's some good news. science -- scientists announce a new, aggressive plan to fight cancer. but first, good morning. washington, d.c., a beautiful shot at the capital. the sun is up there. there aren't many people there now, if anyone, because congress is now on break. everyone's going home to campaign. thanks for starting your morning with cnn. i mean you feel me right? yeah. uh, sir... ah... [ male announcer ] layaway's back. earlier than ever. through december 14th. walmart. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help.

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dying from lung cancer, skin cancer or breast cancer may soon be as rare as dying from pneumonia. that's the hope of the doctors at md anderson in houston. cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta got an exclusive interview at the world's largest cancer research center. >> we're in a position to make a dramatic difference on cancer

mortality in this decade. >> you're saying if we do everything right, in five years from now there will be far few people dying from cancer, right? >> correct. i think with existing knowledge and the application of what we now know, we can see existing reduction in mortality and set control of the disease. >> they are awfully confident. let me free face this by saying, randy, you almost got the sense that they had the energy of when president kennedy talked about season sending a man to the moon, that they're calling this the moon shot project to raise that same passion about that particular project they've taken on. you can take a look at the list of the various cancers, they're big ones, melanoma, lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer overall. you have triple negative breast

cancer, often a very difficult cancer to treat. in many of these cancers on this list they say withins next few years, not a long time in the future but within the next few years, dramatically reduce the deaths. >> what makes them closer now to a cure than ever before? >> i asked that same question. the man you just heard from, the president of md anderson, he's a cancer doctor, there's more than a thousand clinical trials going on, he says we've been learning all along and with the science that we know right now, we can make leaps and bounds towards getting to that cure. quick example. we hear a lot about mapping the geem only and studying people's genes. with the science we know now, you can find specific markers for certain cancers and test for those on early on in life and prevent a lot of those cancers

from ever occurring as a result of those sorts of screenings. lung cancer, as i mentioned, we know how to screen for lung cancer but we don't know who to screen. those areas sound more simple than the wonder drugs we're used to hearing about but it's in those areas you can make a dramatic difference of preventing them to begin with. it's not to say the futuristic medications and ways of using the medications aren't there but it's a multiple of different things going on at the same time. >> you spent a lot of time in their lab looking at the research. on what particular cancer do they think they'll have the greatest immediate impact? >> i think melanoma. we tut put that on the top of the list based on everything that we saw and spending a lot of time with these doctors. you're looking there at a young man who has what's known as stage four melanoma. people who have dealt with cancer understand this is when the cancer has spread throughout the entire body.

there are not a lot of options for someone like him. he's a minor league baseball player, he's a coach here. there's a way they're taking cells from his immune system and teaching them hough to fight the cancer. they're harnessing the power of your body's own immune system and putting it back in the body and saying go find the melanoma and kill it. that approach has been tried in various ways before but it's one of the first times in the world it's happening. >> i lost my mother to lung cancer so it's incredible to see such progress being made already and such commitment. >> absolutely. it's a lot of money. the cancer reservice evenedfund grants have dried up but they think $3 billion over the next ten years to reach this audacious goal. >> and don't miss "chasing the cure," it airs at 4:30 eastern and sunday at 7:30 a.m. eastern

right here. >> mike rove has had a lot of jobs, opera singer -- ♪ ♪ >> really good, right? well, he sat down with me to talk about his new job, bar hopping around the country to show you how booze, yes booze, built america. >> this is the container. this is where you stuff all the wrappers, all the plastic bags, everything that is synthetic and inorganic trash. you just put the lid on top and then you have it ready for construction.

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discovery channel host mike rowe does not mind getting dirty. in fact, he's worked a lot of dirty jobs, but he's certainly not complaining about his assignment this week. he's drinking beer, a lot of it. this was fun. mike took a break from hosting his tv show, and he took a seat at the bar to tell me how booze built america. all right. mike rowe. >> i'm here. >> reporter: you are. >> i am. >> reporter: we're here at old

town bar. >> who's got the tab by the way. >> reporter: we do. >> i love it. >> reporter: when most people think mike rowe, they think "dirty jobs." you've had a lot of interesting jobs including with the bso. how did you get into singing? >> crashed the baltimore opera, learned an or yeah, somehow i got in. >> reporter: any chance you would share something you might remember from your days of singing? >> ultimately it was -- ♪ >> reporter: very good. very good. >> very kind, thank you. >> reporter: so after that, you spent some time, i'm sure a lot of people would be surprised to know at qvc. >> my first actual job in television. >> the lap is a littmp is a lit. not unlike lava. i walked across mt. royal avenue

and ordered a beer but the football game wasn't on. the bartender, a guy i had known for a year, was watching a big shy in a shiny suits selling pots and pan, and i was like, rick, can we watch the game? no. i'm auditioning for that guy's job. i didn't get a callback without the beer and that's what spawned the booze show. >> reporter: three-part series on how booze built america. >> welcome back to the american revolution brought to you by booze. all the portraits we see in history of the signing of the constitution and landing of the may flower. right outside the shot there's a keg somewhere. >> always. >> reporter: a couple of bottles that the painter did not include. why do you think we never heard these stories?

>> look, this is the stuff your social studies teacher just didn't tell you. i'm sure when it comes to talking about it to school kids, there's a lot of pressure, let's just leave that part of the story out because it was a mistake. booze was on the may flower. in fact, the may flower wasn't headed to plymouth. it was headed south. it stopped in plymouth because it ran out of beer, and back in those days beer was the only thing you would drink. once they got into new england, what became new england, they started building taverns every few hours. there was no facebook, you know. taverns were the social network. beer was the thing that held everybody together. >> reporter: one portion of the first portion that i've watched that i was amazed by was the national anthem and that it's actually based on an english drinking song. >> there was an old poem that had been around for years and years and the tune was in fact a drinking song. francis scott key was a lawyer, and he was hired to defend an american who actually gave

british soldiers quarter. he and this guy are on a ship drinking wine anchored outside ft. mchenry, bombs bursting in air when key writes "the star spangled banner." so, you know, he's drinking wine when he's writing it, and ultimately this is all set to an english drinking song, so, you know, i'm not saying we don't have a national anthem without booze, but we certainly don't have the one that we have without it. >> reporter: what is your favorite story about the influence of alcohol and the founding of the country? >> like, you can look, for instance, at lincoln's assassination. everybody knows the story, right? ford's theater, star saloon. john wilkes booth is in the saloon for half an hour, sitting there drinking, liquid courage. gets his courage up and leaves the room to shoot my favorite president. people know that. what they don't know in the same room is a guy in sort of a

pinkerton uniform dressed like a cop. that's john parker. that's lincoln's bodyguard. everybody is drinking. so, you know, when you think about, you know, how did booze take america on a different course, you know, would booth have pulled the trigger had he not had a few in him? would the bodyguard have stopped it had he been at his proper post. it helped bring the north and south together faster. hastened the reconciliation because much of the south was horrified by what booth did. it's not about booze being a good or a bad thing. it's about the fact that it's always in the room. always shaping things, whether we like it or not. >> it was a great conversation. >> sounds like it. >> to sit and converse with this guy over a couple of pale ales and talk about history, not just about the founding of the country and going to the moon and so forth. in the 20th century, it was great >> i found it interesting that

his first question to you was who is picking up the tab here? >> let's clear that up first before i say anything. >> wanted to know how good of a time he could have. >> something i need to tell but this bar, this old town bar in the granmercey neighborhood, if we take you into the bathroom, a 100-year-old relic there. these urinals have been there since 1910. size of a twin bed, they are huge. >> boy, have times changed. >> here's the other thing n.2010 the bar held a birthday party for the urinals. >> that must have been a fun one. >> did they have it in the bathroom, cut the cake in the bathroom? >> urinal cakes. >> okay. i knew i should not have gone there. >> you asked. i wasn't going to say it until you said the word cake. >> okay. can we move on? >> we certainly can. >> okay, yes. >> tired of politics as usual, then you'll want to stick around

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